Category: Miscellaneous

Various items that do not fit any particular category

October Tasks

 

RHS tips for the month.

1. Divide rhubarb crowns.

2. Cut back perennials that have died back.

3. Divide herbaceous perennials.

4. Move tender plants into a greenhouse

5. Plant out Spring cabbages.

6. Harvest apples, pears and nuts.

7. Prune climbing roses.

8. Finish collecting seeds to grow next year.

9. Keep cutting the grass and trim the hedges.

10. Still a good time to repair lawns.

The grass cutting season seems to get longer. If it's dry enough, keep cutting with the height of the blade raised. This will make the first cut in Spring a lot easier. If reseeding bare patches remember to spread an extra handful to account for what the birds will consume.

Plant wallflowers, primula, forget-me-nots and Winter flowering pansies in prepared ground or containers. Any pots not raised should be done so now or they will become water logged over Winter.

October is the best time of year to move trees and shrubs. Bare root trees and shrubs start to become available now. These are a lot cheaper to purchase and planted now will soon establish quickly. When looking at gardens you will see some where the plants are struggling for space, so be careful how many you put in as it's easy to get carried away and fill in all the gaps, leaving no room for future growth. Over the years plants do out grow their space even with careful planning and decisions have to be made. It can be quite refreshing to start over, although some plants will have memories attached to them. If you do decide to remove some plants, take cuttings and grow on. Hardwood cuttings take very well at this time of year.

Some of the larger Wyevale garden centres have been taken over by Blue Diamond group based in the Channel Islands so you will need to swap over cards when you visit one of their garden centres. The nearest one is at St Mellons.

The new Grange development has proven a difficult area for new home owners as clay is quite near the problem, organic material and garden lime put in to the soil at this time of year will break down the clay and help the soil to hold on to nutrients.

Some members of the library volunteers organised the Village show this year. Hopefully they will continue to do so because without their willingness to rise to the challenge the show would fade away. If you could help I'm sure you would be welcomed.

Leaf mould is the material to grow your bulbs in. Now is the time of year to start making it for next year. Just fill some bin bags with leaves, of which Wenvoe has plenty, add a little water if dry, make a couple of holes in the bag and leave till next year. That's all you need to do.

Happy gardening.

 

 

Early-Marriages Are Detrimental

 

Since I was little, I imagined what my future wedding would be like. The dress, the layout, the partner; all children daydream about the day they will marry their soulmate. I always wondered what they would look like, their personality, how we would meet, how old I would be and how long it would take for us to get engaged. But I realise now, my imagination of what the future would hold for me was because I get to make a choice. Unfortunately, choice isn’t granted to every girl in the world.

I’m eighteen, and currently, I don’t see myself marrying for probably another ten years. I haven’t met the person – I haven’t even come close. But 12 million girls all over the world are married before they reach eighteen. Before their life begins. 23 girls every minute; almost 1 every 2 seconds. A choice they can’t make themselves; a choice they aren’t allowed to make themselves.

Being Welsh, I know gender pay inequality is still an issue that women in the UK face, but in the big scheme of things, it’s hardly the women of the world’s biggest concern. Of course, the gender pay gap ought to close and I truly hope it does; I aim to be a part of that conversation. But the truth of the matter is, gender inequality reaches so far beyond pay in many of the countries around the world and extends to the genuine belief that women are so inferior to men on a much larger scale. In numerous countries, being born a girl immediately creates a burden on a family; to ease economic hardship, and ‘burden’ another family in place of theirs, families marry off their young daughters. Patriarchal values aid in child marriage, as there is a desire by the patriarchal society in these countries to control a women, by the way they dress, how she should behave and most importantly, who she should marry.

Child marriage seems to us like some barbaric burden placed on young girls. So many countries practice child marriage simply as it is something that has happened for generations, but it doesn’t justify the practice. In Southern Ethiopia for example, harmful practices are often linked, with child marriage leading to female genital mutilation; practices may be tradition, but they can be harmful to those involved. Many young girls who are married are expected to have children, but many get pregnant when their bodies have only just started puberty. They die because their bodies are not equipped to carrying a baby, and certainly not built for giving birth to them.

GirlsNotBrides is a global partnership of over 1000 civil society organisations which are dedicated to ending child marriage. Their theory of change involves ideas such as empowering girls and giving them opportunities to build skills and knowledge; by encouraging them to become agents of change themselves, we can  continue the chain of empowering young girls. With the Safe Space Programmes, we can successfully build girls’ self-confidence, for married girls who do not receive an education, they offer self-sufficiency and having a safe place to meet with other girls who have shared the same experiences, the feeling of isolation and vulnerability can begin to be removed. The work the global partnership does with men and boys who become husbands, or who are brothers and fathers shows the value of encouraging young girls and aiding to fulfil their potential.

Child marriage, according to ‘GirlsNotBrides’ website ‘violates girls’ rights to health, education and opportunity. It exposes girls to violence throughout their lives and traps them in a cycle of poverty’. More than 650 million women, and over 150 million men have suffered child marriage, and without faster progress the global number of women married as children will reach 1.2 billion by 2050. If we help to support GirlsNotBrides, we can help end the devastating consequences of child marriage. Progress is being made, with the African Union and the South Asia Initiative to End Violence Against Children having launched initiatives to help end child marriages and support young married girls; more and more countries are developing national action plans to end child marriage, in partnership with the UN.

A campaign conducted by the Network of Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian Women Organizations of Kosovo (a project under the EU-UN jurisdiction ‘Implementing Norms, Changing Minds’) have allowed for communities in Kosovo to understand the detrimental restrictions early-marriage forces upon young girls’ prospect of a safe life. A young man named Qerim completed his training on the prevention of early-marriage and has begun his door-to-door programme of beginning conversations in his neighbourhood and is encouraging them to consider the effects early-marriage has on the young women within their own community. By opening the conversation to communities where child marriage is often a tradition, we can help prevent the practice.

You may not think this is a problem we should deal with, as it is not a problem on Britain’s doorstep. But it doesn’t mean we can’t help in the matter. Supporting the UN and global partnerships like GirlsNotBrides, FreedomUnited, Amnesty International, Plan International and so many more can make even the slightest difference. By continuing the conversation and understanding how early-marriages are detrimental, you are a part of change.

Child marriage needs to stop and progress isn’t happening fast enough. Support these global partnerships and become a part of change.

By Tirion Davies

 

 

One-Woman Show

 

Sorting the Sock Drawer

– A one-woman show by Eirwen Malin on Thursday 27th September 2018, 7pm Wenvoe Arms Function Room.

“Medron was a good king; kind, just and surprisingly progressive. The country prospered. But there was something wrong, something wrong with Medron himself and he knew it. It all started when he noticed that the sole of his right shoe kept wearing out much more quickly than the left”

After several years of occasional visits to the GP surgery with odd and unexplained symptoms, one of the GPs referred me to a neurologist “to put my mind at rest”. After nearly 12 months of waiting, I finally got my appointment and the consultant unexpectedly, and with somewhat clumsy practice, diagnosed Parkinson’s Disease, a degenerative, incurable, neurological condition which according to him is “devastating in its later stages”. My world had been upended but the good (?) news was PD does not particularly shorten lifespan. You just have to learn to live with it, potentially for a very long time.

Sorting the Sock Drawer intertwines Medron’s mythical journey with my personal path. As protagonists of each story we gain new strengths as we face challenges and arrive at journey’s end with a changed and meaningful life. Come and join us to hear what I hope is an entertaining and uplifting tale.

I’ll look forward to a chat in the bar afterwards.

This is the first date of a new tour of the show. Previous audiences have said:-

“Funny, sad, thought-provoking."

"Beautifully crafted. I love the blend of traditional and personal story.”

“The message will stay with me… Life is different, but not necessarily worse”

Thanks to Jenny and Digby at The Wenvoe for providing the venue for free. There is no charge though there will be a voluntary donation to a Parkinson’s charity.

Numbers are restricted so please book your seat by texting Phil 07870 212437 or email philipthomas664@gmail.com.

Access to the venue is via steps – apologies to those who have restricted mobility.

Running time about 1hour 15 mins.

I hope to see you there

Eirwen

 

 

Love is a Losing Game

Love is a Losing Game

Imagine being paralysed by fear in your own home. Imagine being hit to the point of breaking but you must continue to live with your abuser. Imagine if you lived in a country where unless you are hospitalised – that is, if you have the guts to take yourself to a hospital – your abuser is forgiven by society. Imagine if your abuser becomes the hero of the narrative, making you the villain by default. Imagine then, being a woman in the Russia of 2018.

More than 10,000 women in Russia are believed to die from injuries inflicted by their husbands yearly, yet despite this, the Russian parliament has passed a legal amendment decriminalising domestic abuse. With 380 to 3 votes in the Duma, and Putin’s easy agreement, the motion passed easily. Why can’t Russia seem to notice the death sentence they have forced upon millions of its women and children? Why hasn’t Russia considered the terror the change of law has inflicted on the women of Yekaterinburg, where the penalty for “minor injuries” such as bruising was reduced from a two year sentence to fifteen days in prison? Why haven’t they considered that since the law was introduced, Yekaterinburg has had police responding to 350 incidents of domestic violence daily?

But consider this: what if you had to pay your husband’s fine after he broke your nose and spirit? What if you not only had to protect yourself, but your child as well? It seems hard to believe that the same country that offered suffrage for its women in 1917 and introduced the modern International Women’s Day could leave its women in such a predicament. One woman dies every 40 minutes in the ‘Motherland’ from domestic abuse. And for what? To protect Russian tradition? To maintain the ‘sacred family’ unit? One woman dead every 40 minutes, each one ignored by Parliament.

And what of the women who actively try to keep their fellow women down? What if the woman who witnessed the abuse praised your abuser for his strength and masculinity, despite almost killing you? Take, for example, Russian MP Yelena Mizulina, who helped to instigate the decriminalisation after arguing that it made no sense to break up a family for the sake of “a slap”. Mizulina has condemned a generation of women to a toxic familial environment because she doesn’t believe they should have the right to escape it. This can only lead to one thing: the woman lying cold on the kitchen floor. Maria Mamikonyan, chair of the Russian Parental, has condoned “ordinary educational slaps, which almost all families use to let children know their limits.” But when does a disciplinary ‘slap’ become abusive? And since when is it acceptable to treat grown women like children?

If you lived in a country where you were, ironically, threatened with rape for attending classes to protect yourself, would you sit idly by and allow it to happen? If you were forced to be on the run like a criminal for a crime of which you were the victim, wouldn’t you ask why? But the women of Russia have been asking why. They’ve been asking why for so long now that their cries are wails and yet their country still refuses to hear them. And we do the same. So what can they do? Stay silent, in order to stay alive. Live in fear of being murdered by the men who are meant to love them.

With up to a third of Russian women believed to suffer from some form of domestic abuse, and 40% of all murders and violent crimes taking place within the home, it’s a wonder how these women carry on. How do they go about their day, trying not to wince at the collage of bruises hidden carefully under their clothes? They have to, when staying with their partner is an easier option than living amongst the shadows.

There is a popular saying in Russia: “if he beats you, it means he loves you”. Passivity is maintained by these women as a form of survival, as though their lives are equal to a game of chess. One wrong move, and the Queen’s life hangs in the balance.

Imagine not being protected by your own nation. Would you honestly be content with that? Why then are we allowing any woman to live in that dystopian present? We cannot call ourselves a country with some of the best equal rights laws and not feel despair for the women of Russia. I urge you to imagine yourself, your grandmother, your mother, sister or daughter in a situation, where no one seems to stop the suffering of the innocent.

Without a voice, there is no change. But we have a voice – I have a voice. And so do you. Together, our voices have the power to be deafening. We cannot allow for the blood of these women to be smeared across the Russian flag in the name of ‘tradition’. By supporting charities such as Refuge and raising awareness of the severity of the problem which occurs by decriminalising domestic abuse, the rest of the world can protect the women who are unable to protect themselves. The women of Russia deserve the opportunity to fight for their lives without the threat of incarceration. We know what is happening, and yet no attempt has been on Britain’s part to protect them.

Time for change has come, and the window of opportunity is slowly closing. I will be doing all that I can to protect the women across the world suffering from sexual violence.

Will you be joining me?

By Tirion Davies

 

 

School Holidays Too Long?

 

FANTASTIC WEATHER AND SIX WEEKS OF QUALITY FAMILY TIME
But were the school holidays too long?

As the Vale’s primary and secondary schools return for the Autumn Term, there are those who argue that the Summer holiday break has been too long and it would be less stressful for parents in particular, if we cut back on the length of school holidays. Working parents have to rely on a variety of cunning plans to cover the holiday period, often including costly child-care, amenable relatives and a host of planned activities.

It is a common perception that long school holidays are a hangover of the Victorian era, when children were needed to help work on the family farm during the summer months. That theory has been challenged by those who point out that during the 19th century, vast numbers of the population migrated from the countryside to the huge new industrial towns and cities. The long summer holidays they say, were a consequence of the increasingly successful fight by trade unions for a shorter working day and more time off. As workers enjoyed holidays, family celebrations required children to be available and not at school. The development of railways boosted the family holiday by the seaside and in the UK of course that meant in the summer months.

What of other countries?

A survey of countries world-wide reveals a similar pattern to the UK with most having long school breaks at some point in the year. Japan is one of many countries which mirror the UK, with a break from the end of July to early September.

In the United States the summer break lasts about 12 weeks and in Ireland, Italy, Lithuania and Russia, summer holidays normally last three months!

Is it a good idea to reduce the number of holidays?

Head teachers in the UK argue teachers and children benefit from school holidays. Children have important experiences over the summer, developing their own ways to fill the time, often engaging in valuable new activities and interests. The holidays can provide an opportunity for them to develop their social and communication skills outside of the familiar school environment.

As for teachers there’s the increasing problem of teacher recruitment, as well as finding time for them to fulfil their professional development responsibilities and prepare for the year. All this suggests that maybe a long holiday is just what exhausted teachers and jaded students need. As a slightly biased former teacher with 30 years in the classroom, I would of course have to agree.

So how can youngsters be safely, productively and affordably entertained throughout the long summer holiday?

In the United States, with longer school breaks than Britain and typically, less holiday leave for working parents, residential summer camps provide a home-from-home and a chance for children to develop their confidence and learn new skills. The UK already has a multitude of similar organisations providing exciting summer activities but these are often costly. So if we follow this route, who pays? Without some state support less privileged children would probably miss out. On the other hand, the idea of state support for summer camps would likely be rejected by those who fear more taxation or state intervention in education. In the meantime we can all look forward to the half-term break. However you plan to spend 29th October to 2nd November, it is probably wise to start planning now!

WHO WAS NYE BEVAN?

 

As widely publicised, this month sees the National Health Service, celebrate its 70th birthday. The man most closely associated with the foundation of the NHS was a Welshman, Aneurin Bevan.

Most of us will have at some time passed the statute of Aneurin Bevan at the west end of Queen Street and also seen the striking painting of the famous Welshman while visiting the clinics at the Heath Hospital. But what of the man who as Minister of Health in the post-war Attlee Government (1945-51) led the creation and establishment of the NHS?

Aneurin Bevan was born at 32 Charles Street, Tredegar, on 15th November 1897. It was one of a long row of four-roomed miners' cottages. He was the sixth of ten children born to Phoebe and David Bevan, of whom only eight survived infancy and only six to adulthood.

His mother Phoebe was not interested in politics but as a typical Welsh ‘mam’ dominated matters in the home and was a strict disciplinarian. His father David Bevan was a Tredegar miner and active trade-unionist. As with many miners, he suffered from the choking black dust disease pneumoconiosis. It was a disease that was to eventually kill him.

Bevan disliked school and was often in conflict with William Orchard, headmaster of Sirhowy School. On one occasion, Orchard asked one of his friends why he had not been to school the day before and when he replied that it was his brother's turn to wear the shoes, he mocked him. Bevan reacted by throwing an inkwell at his headmaster. At the age of eleven he worked long hours after school and weekends as a butcher's boy. On his thirteenth birthday, in November 1910, he went to work with his father in the Ty-Tryst colliery for 7 shillings (35p) a week. Bevan joined the Tredegar branch of the South Wales Miners’ Federation and soon became a union activist. By the time he was nineteen he was chairman of his Miners' Lodge and a powerful speaker. His employers considered him to be nothing less than a revolutionary. In 1917 he was called up under the Conscription Act, but refused to join the British Army claiming he would choose his own enemy and battlefield. He was however eventually rejected on health grounds, as he suffered from an eye condition.

In 1919 Bevan he won a scholarship to the Central Labour in London, where promising young trade unionists could learn about Labour Party history and Marxism. While at college he was given elocution lessons and overcame his long time stammer by giving speeches in public whenever possible. The early 1920s were difficult for Bevan with some collieries refusing to employ the young firebrand and others offering only temporary employment due to the poor state of the economy. When the General

Strike broke out in 1926 Bevan soon emerged as one of the leaders of the South Wales miners. However, following the defeat of the strike he seems to have decided that politics would offer a more fruitful opportunity to make a difference and after a short spell as a councillor he was elected as MP for Ebbw Vale. He represented the Labour Party in the constituency for the next 31 years. In 1934 he married Jennie Lee, a fellow socialist and MP for North Lanarkshire.

In the years leading to World War II, Bevan argued that Britain should ally herself with socialist countries against the march of fascism. This stance proved very unpopular and even led to him being expelled from the Labour Party for a short time. During the war he was appointed by Winston Churchill to the wartime coalition government, as Minister of Labour. When the war ended Bevan like most of his Labour Party colleagues saw a great opportunity to build a new society based on socialist principles. Bevan was particularly keen on the manifesto commitment to create a National Health Service.

As the Attlee Government went to work on its radical programme, Aneurin Bevan as Minister of Health, became the leading light in the establishment of the NHS. In 1946 Parliament passed the revolutionary National Insurance Act. It instituted a comprehensive state health service, providing for compulsory contributions for unemployment, sickness, maternity and widows' benefits and old age pensions from employers and employees, with the government funding the balance. People in Britain were provided with free diagnosis and treatment of illness, at home or in hospital, as well as dental and ophthalmic services. The birth of the NHS was marked by Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan’s visit to Park, now Trafford Hospital, in Manchester on 5 July 1948. That day Bevan met the NHS’s first patient, 13 year old Sylvia Diggory.

Following his spell as Health Minister, Bevan served for a short period as Minister of Labour but resigned in 1951when Hugh Gaitskell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced that he intended to introduce measures that would force people to pay half the cost of dentures and spectacles and a one shilling prescription charge. For the next five years Bevan led the left-wing of the Labour Party, before returning to the opposition front bench as shadow foreign secretary and eventually deputy leader of the party in 1959. He was though already a very ill man and died of cancer on 6th July, 1960.

 

 

 

IS THAT REALLY THE BANK OR THE POLICE?

 

IS THAT REALLY THE BANK OR THE POLICE?

We know fraudsters are going round impersonating the police and your bank. Never trust any claims you hear which involve you sharing personal information, disclosing bank details, or making payments.

 Be extremely wary of unsolicited calls from your bank or the police.

 End the call, and call back from a different number. If not possible, wait at least a minute before calling back.

 Call the number found on your bank card, or the police on 101.

 Check with friends or family. Don’t trust claims by cold callers.

 Never share your PIN with anyone.

 Never hand over money, bank cards or make purchases following an unexpected call.

 

REMEMBER

Your bank or the police will never ask for your PIN, bank card, or for you to withdraw money or buy items on their behalf.

 

 

 

THE HISTORY OF SCARECROWS

For thousands of years scarecrows have helped save crops from birds and other animals and provided an outlet for human creativity. Scarecrow genealogy is rooted in a rural lifestyle. The Egyptians used the first scarecrows in recorded history to protect wheat fields along the river Nile from quail flocks. Farmers installed wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets. Then they hid in the fields, scared the quail into the nets and took the bird’s home to eat.

Greek farmers in 2,500 BC carved wooden scarecrows to look like Priapus (the son of the god Dionysus and the goddess Aphrodite) who was supposedly ugly enough to scare birds away from the vineyards and ensure good harvests. The scarecrows were painted purple with one hand holding a club to scare the birds and a sickle in the other for good harvests. As the Romans marched across Europe they followed the Greeks and introduced Priapus scarecrows. Simultaneously the Japanese had scarecrows called kakashis shaped like people. They dressed them in raincoats and a straw hat and often added bows and arrows to look more threatening. Kojiki the oldest surviving Japanese book from 712 features a scarecrow known as Kuebiko who appears as a deity who cannot walk but knows everything about the world.

In Germany scarecrows were made to look like witches whilst in medieval Britain children were used to patrol the crops and wave their arms and throw stones. Later on farmers stuffed sacks of straw, made faces from gourds and leaned the straw man against a pole.

During the Great Depression in America scarecrows could be found across the whole country until after the Second World War when farming began to use chemicals to protect their crops. For thousands of years scarecrows have helped save crops from birds and other animals and provided an outlet for human creativity. Scarecrow genealogy is rooted in a rural lifestyle. The Egyptians used the first scarecrows in recorded history to protect wheat fields along the river Nile from quail flocks. Farmers installed wooden frames in their fields and covered them with nets. Then they hid in the fields, scared the quail into the nets and took the bird’s home to eat.

Greek farmers in 2,500 BC carved wooden scarecrows to look like Priapus (the son of the god Dionysus and the goddess Aphrodite) who was supposedly ugly enough to scare birds away from the vineyards and ensure good harvests. The scarecrows were painted purple with one hand holding a club to scare the birds and a sickle in the other for good harvests. As the Romans marched across Europe they followed the Greeks and introduced Priapus scarecrows. Simultaneously the Japanese had scarecrows called kakashis shaped like people. They dressed them in raincoats and a straw hat and often added bows and arrows to look more threatening. Kojiki the oldest surviving Japanese book from 712 features a scarecrow known as Kuebiko who appears as a deity who cannot walk but knows everything about the world.

In Germany scarecrows were made to look like witches whilst in medieval Britain children were used to patrol the crops and wave their arms and throw stones. Later on farmers stuffed sacks of straw, made faces from gourds and leaned the straw man against a pole.

During the Great Depression in America scarecrows could be found across the whole country until after the Second World War when farming began to use chemicals to protect their crops.

 

 

 

The Children’s Story

 

When Our Children Tell Their Story, They’ll Tell the Story of Tonight

Being a teenager can sometimes be terrifying. But when we say terrifying, we mean being terrified of showing up to a party severely overdressed, or earning a bad grade at something we believe we ought to excel at, or even being terrified of stress and our own mental health. We never mean being terrified of being shot at our place of education. That is a fear which should not be reserved for anyone, especially not the youth of today.

I’m not American. I’ve never experienced gun-violence. But it doesn’t stop my compassion from throwing itself in aid of my fellow teenagers across the pond. I mean, Eliza Gonzales and the revolutionary teens storming America and conducting the ‘March For Our Lives’ seem to be handling the battle. But, they shouldn’t have to be. It’s not a fight they should have to be a part of. They shouldn’t have to continue making speeches and urging the adults in Congress who should be looking after them to stop gun violence. They should be terrified of falling on their face in heels, in the same way we fear in Britain. They shouldn’t have to be fighting for their lives.

I’ve spoken about gun violence before. The fact that I’m having to re-iterate so soon afterwards is a sign in itself that America is struggling. They shouldn’t be having an annoying Welsh girl telling them how to run their country. They should be aware of the many thousands of children who have died in mass shootings in schools across the US. They should be aware that by not doing anything, they are enforcing a death sentence on the many who only wish for an education.

Although I was not marching, my solidarity is with all those who did. To those not only in America, but all over the world. To those in London and Edinburgh and Belfast. To those in Belgium, Denmark, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Iceland, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Israel, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Ghana, Mozambique, Puerto Rico and Canada: I stand with you.

There’s not much more I can say, except I hope they hear you and make a change. It’s too late for those who’ve lived through it, but maybe a change can protect those lucky enough to know nothing of American school shootings.

Maybe being lucky shouldn’t be the default. I know one thing for certain: I love the fact that I am part of such a strong generation. That when I look at the news I see the strong character you could only write about in films that are my age. My hope is that this has paid off. But I can only wish that those affected can finally get protection.

Protect kids. Not guns. Please.

By Tirion Davies

 

 

 

 

ALL IS FAIR IN LOVE AND RUGBY

 

Second from the TOP

Didn't Wales do well in the end in the six nations rugby competition. All seemed well on the first weekend when we gave Scotland a shock. That woke them up a bit and improved their play. In the past I was always in awe at how France played ‘basketball rugby’ with high passes and adhesive palms before velcro was invented. Sadly, this year when we tried it against Ireland there was a leprechaun ready to intercept and steal a win away from us with a try. Not that we had had a great game. Ireland seemed to play ‘special rugby with a few dull phases. We seemed to play ‘ordinary rugby with a few special moments. It was a shame that Scotland pipped Italy at the post to deny them a consolation win to go with the wooden spoon. But our hard graft against France, and hard graft it was, edged us into second place in the table. In the words of many of my school reports: “satisfactory progress, could do better".

Second from the BOTTOM

Eddie Jones recently had to apologise for insulting the Welsh and the Irish during an after dinner speech last June. Better late than never I suppose. Happily, Celts have a sense of humour. Sadly, he is arrogant enough to have meant the insults, and the super rich English Rugby Union and players have the same personalities. All water under the Severn Bridge. He set his squad up to ride roughshod over the other five teams, and he did win, just, over Wales. But the French cockerel pecked them in their ‘derrieres’. Ireland taught them the final lesson about all round fifteen man rugby. Gauls and Celts can smile while the Anglo-Saxons take comfort that they didn’t come last.

AyJay

 

 

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